The beginning of April was fine. The sun shone from a clear blue sky and it was warm enough to melt some of the snow. Mud and grass began to appear in Annie's field. Annie sometimes look. Paul in his wheelchair out of the house at the back, and let him sit in the sunshine and read a book. She sang while she worked around the house, and laughed at jokes she heard on the TV. She left his door unlocked and open while she was in the house. Paul tried not to think of the snow melting and uncovering his car.

The morning of the fifteenth, however, was windy and dull, and Annie changed. She didn't come into his room with his tablets until nine o'clock, and by then he needed them quite badly - so badly that he nearly got some from under the mattress. Then, when she came, she was still in her night-clothes and she brought him only the tablets, no breakfast. There were red marks on her arms and cheeks, and her clothes were messy with spilled food. She dragged her feet along the corridor. Her hair was untidy and her eyes were dull.

'Here.' She threw the pills at him and they fell into his lap. She turned to go, dragging her feet.

'Annie?' She stopped without turning round. 'Annie, are you all right?'

'No,' she said carelessly, and turned to face him. She looked at him in that same dull way. She began to pinch her lower lip between her finger and thumb. She pulled it out and twisted it, while pinching it hard. Drops of blood began to fall down her chin. She turned and left without speaking another word, before his astonished mind could persuade itself that he had really seen her do that. She closed the door and locked it.

He heard her sit down in her favourite chair. There was silence. She didn't switch on the TV as usual. She was just sitting there -just sitting there being not all right.

Then there was a sound - a single, sharp sound which was unmistakable: she had hit herself, hard, in the face.

He remembered reading that when mad people start to become deeply, seriously depressed, they hurt themselves. This signals the start of a long period of depression. He was suddenly very frightened.

She hadn't returned by eleven that morning, so Paul decided to try to get into the wheelchair by himself; he wanted to try to work. He succeeded, although it hurt him a lot, and he rolled himself over to the table.